You really care about her, don't you?
by UnicornHawthorn
Summary: Osgood's already lost herself, quite literally. Can she really cope with the possibility of the death of the woman she loves? Set immediately after Death in Heaven. Contains spoilers for Death in Heaven and The Zygon Invasion. TW Character Death


You're working when you feel it. You hadn't been well, a cold, nothing more, but Kate didn't want you getting any worse so you hadn't gone with them to find the Doctor and the cybermen. Anyway, someone had to stay back at the lab to analyse the compounds in the water the cybermen were spreading around London and this way you got all the information, as it was happening. This is one of the upsides to having a mental link to your double, you always have what was in the other's head in yours. You are the ultimate walkie-talkies. Walking, talking, thinking, existing.

You've been having a mental conversation with her for a while before it happened. She's examining one of missy's devices and you're looking up all previous intel on the master for her. With a mental link as close as what the two of you have, being literally the same person, you feel immediately when her mind wanders and you can tell that something's wrong. You stop, your hands perfectly still, hovering just above the pages of the file you're reading. Staring straight ahead but not seeing anything. You feel her frantic reasoning with Missy gradually upping in frenzy until it reaches barely concealed panic and then nothing. Gone. The link severed. Dead silence when there should have been her thoughts. Nothing where there once was something. She'd been there since the last zygon invasion, a constant presence both in and out of your head. Now she is gone.

Kate.

In the empty gap left in your head by her absence, a single solid though forms. You know from her final train of though that everything was running smoothly until the master - missy escaped so Kate must have been safe then. But now? What havoc could missy possible be wrecking on the plane now? 30,000 feet was not the greatest of places to be when your trapped there with a murderous megalomaniac.

That's when you hear it, the wheezing, whooshing sound you've heard only a handful of times before. The TARDIS is materialising somewhere down the hall. Forcing yourself to move calmly - no one else is yet aware of any problems and you want to try and find out what happened to your sister first - you walk down to Kate's office. You knock twice before remembering she's on the plane and you punch open the door to find a familiar blue box parked on the rug. The door opens and the Doctor comes out, carrying an unconscious Kate bridal style in his arms. At the sight of you he starts and almost drops Kate. She stirs gently in her unconscious state drawing his attentions back to her. He gently deposits her in her desk char before turning to you, looking increasingly puzzled.

"Osgood? But you- No offence, but you died. I saw you." He starts, his words rushing somewhat in his confusion. It takes surprisingly little time to explain the whole yes-there-are-now-two-of-me-well-apparently-now-one-so-no-I'm-not-dead thing to the doctor and in turn he tells you what happened first in the plane and then in the graveyard and comforts you when he is forced to recount your sister's death. You begin to ask how all that happened in only minutes since you felt her go but then you remember, time travel.

At this point Kate stirs again and you rush to her side, brushing away tears as you are recalled to the time and place of the current situation. Her pulse is feeble when you feel it but it's still there and regular enough. You look up to find the Doctor sat across the desk, gazing at you.

"You care about her, don't you?" He asks, gently.

You aren't quite sure what he's suggesting. "Of course I care about her, she's my friend." You say, stoutly, and it is the truth, well, it's mostly the truth. He merely nods and you think you see a flash of doubt or possibly pity in his eyes before you turn back to Kate. "Is she going to be okay?" You ask quietly, not looking at him.

He sighs deeply and you jerk your head up to look at him. "She fell nearly 30,000 feet before her father caught her. She was surrounded by falling plane wreckage and the air temperature was far below zero. We just can't know what could have happened to her. I'm sorry, Osgood." He sounds resigned but you're already up on your feet, back to Kate, staring at him.

Aside from Kate, of course, the only person you've really ever felt comfortable speaking to and even to stand up to in certain situations, is the Doctor. "The must be something you can do." You know you're beginning to sound desperate but you are. "I've already lost my sister today, I can't lose the woman whom I've loved for longer than I can remember when I haven't even told her that yet-" But you're cut off by a feeble voice from behind you.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

You whirl around, blushing to your core, to see Kate grinning at you, awake and fine apart from some minor bruises. "Kate! I- I didn't- I'm sorry- I-"

But Kate is already standing up and brushing herself off. As ever, it would take more than a plane crash and a mass murdering alien to defeat a Lethbridge-Stewart. She looks straight at you, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"It's okay, Osgood." She pauses, grinning mischievously. "You know, for someone with such a wonderfully logical and scientific mind as yours, you really were slow to pick up on the signs." And she pulls you in for a kiss, her mouth lingering on yours, her scent filling every fibre of your being as you embrace. You break to slow clapping from the doctor, who is beaming, and you both blush having forgotten he was in the room before her look of embarrassed joy turns quickly to one of concern as she sees your red face and utters three very familiar syllables:

"Inhaler."


End file.
